Path of Portals
This path, developed by Forrest Carter, of the Tremere twins, revolves around blood magic that affects time and space. o Hold Closed the Gateway. The first dot allows a thaumaturge to mentally keep closed a door. It becomes supernaturally tough, and more difficult to enter through. This makes more difficult all rolls to bypass this doorway, window, or some sort of passage. This includes breaking through the door, or lockpicking, or hacking a security panel. This ability is only usable on doors, or objects that open - thus an open passageway cannot be restricted. The door's lock can also magically resist keys that would open it before Hold Closed the Gateway was invoked, making them useless (this includes keycards, passwords, and the like). This must be decided at the time of casting, and cannot be changed unless the path is recast. The magic of the first dot also detours others from bypassing the door magically, such as using vigor to break through the wall next to the door. A resist roll is required to bypass the doorway in some other way than using the door. This deterrment does not extend much further than the area directly surrounding the door. To perform this path, one must wipe their blood on the door or object to become more difficult to bypass - this blood seeps into the object, becoming unsee-able except by the third dot of auspex. This power requires a vitae to use. oo Break the Binds Break the Binds creates a brief passageway through a substance that leads directly out the other side. Based off of some of the abilities of Protean, only instead of affecting the Kindred, it affects the area the Kindred seeks to enter. Using this path, they may pass walls, doors, or even small mounds, so long as their trip is short. The area directly in front of the Kindred is shifted out of reality, and easily passed through to what lays behind it. The visual effect easily breaches the masquerade, and is quite disconcerting watching it become hazy, and distorted then reform once the Kindred has passed through. So long as the Kindred continues forward (and only forward, since changing direction is too difficult), he may continue to pass the area in front of him. For every round the Kindred seeks to pass through something, he must spend a blood. Unfortuantely due to the bizarre nature of Break the Binds, Kindred are unable to use Celerity in the extra-dimensional space they travel through. If a Kindred is somehow attacked, knocked torpor or slain while travelling in this manner, they become entombed as the physical space they removed comes back to reality and surrounds their form. The Kindred may not have anyone else travel in front or behind them, but may have another walking in step with them. The number of people who can walk side by side is determined by the size of everyone, and the people walking with the caster are at his mercy, as they cannot make heads or tells of what is going on, unless they also know this path. For every round that a Kindred travels in this way, no matter how brief, a vitae is used. They are limited by their speed, and may not double move due to the concration involved - they may also not attack or perform other actions while concentrating in this way. If they use all their blood before reaching a space large enough to hold them, they are entombed. ooo Portal Portal turns a door into a gateway into one of the other Planes of existence. By opening the door, you can travel to Twightlight, Umbral, Shadowlands, etc... The planar destination is chosen at the time of casting, and lasts for a number of nights equal to successes. However, the portal looks to be a wall of complete darkness, and you cannot see through it. You only know what awaits you on the other side once you step through it. If you push a limb through, it does not physically appear on the other side until you bring all of your body through, thus you cannot poke your head through to see first. It is risky business, travelling like this. This portal is one-way, although you usually exit out another door. This is the only time the door will open, to expel the planar travellers, and the sight is a pure black wall of darkness that cannot be seen through (as there is nothing to see, this is the space between planes - nothingness). During the linking, the destination door becomes almost impossible to open, coming under the affect of the first dot of Path of Gates. If someone does manage to somehow damage the door, or open it from the destination side, the effect ends, breaking the discipline. Likewise if someone manages to damage the door from the travelling side, it ends the effect. During the duration of this effect, the passage through the door is inaccessible, although the physical space behind it still exists and can be accessed through other means - such as tunneling around the door. If cast during an equinox, or solstice and a willpower dot (not point) is expended, the Portal can be made permanent. oooo Displacement Displacement shifts a room slightly out of reality making it inaccessible through magical means. People who are in the space that has been synced out of reality are unable to magically leave it (such as travelling to Twighlight, to Arcadia, to Shadowlands, or through Shadows), and are unable to physically leave it. If they break through a door or wall, which have become supernaturally difficult to bypass, they will encounter infinite darkness (see below). No one may be able to leave, and no one may enter. Displacement lasts for as long as the Kindred wills it (to a maximum of one night a success), or until that Kindred is slain or torpored. The doors that lead out or into the room become nearly impossible to open, and if one does manage to open them, they will see only impenetrable darkness. No amount of light or auspex will allow you to see in the darkness, it is not actually a lack of light, but a lack of reality. Walking into the darkness will continue forward forever, however if one turns around, they will see directly behind them the way they came only a few feet away. One could walk for days forward in the darkness, but if looked over his shoulder, would see the way he came is still only two feet behind him. He may return the way he came with no trouble whatsoever. If the Path ends while someone is walking through the darkness, they are immediately placed outside of the darkness right outside the way they came with no other ill effects. The Kindred who uses this ability need not center it on himself, he could use it on a room in front of him, however he must be physically near that room, and be able to see it. This ability uses both a vitae and a willpower. People who are inside the room when this ability is used may attempt to leave via celerity or some other quick method, but recieve no resistance roll otherwise. If somehow someone does manage to escape (or enter), the Kindred who cast this discipline has no psychic connection to who comes and goes, and is not aware of it. At the time of casting this ability, the Kindred may allow for Doors or some other passageway to function normally, and allow travel into and out of the sinced area. The only sensation that alerts someone to being in a synced area is a constant mild dizziness, and Vertigo, although Auspex will alert the user that something is not right (although may not specifically allow them to know what exactly). ooooo Through the Rabbit Hole This powerful path links two doorways, or two chests, or something similar, making it so that travelling through one changes the destination to the other and vice-versa. The distance between them is of no conscequence, so long as the destination falls within the area up to the distance from the Earth to the Moon (the same as the fifth dot of auspex). This ability will only link doorways on the same Plane (thus you could not link a doorway from earth to one in the shadowlands). This method of travel is always two-way, and unlike the other dots, it appears as if nothing is amiss on first glance - you can see through the doorway and walk through it like any other. It looks just as any normal passage would, save it may take you someplace very far away. Through the Rabbit Hole, affects a doorway in its entirety, (thus you may not make it so that walking through the doorway one way takes you someplace else, but walking through it from the other direction doesn't teleport you at all), and any door affected will lose it's original usefullness. To link two doorways, the Thaumaturge must travel to both of them, and physically smear his blood on the door. This blood will remain visible to all, and anyone using auspex will see its magical nature. If the blood is washed away, or disturbed somehow, the next time the door is closed, the affect is ended for both of them. When this happens, if one wishes to fix this, you must recast it and travel to both locations once again. This path lasts for a number of nights equal to your successes, and if each door is enchanted on a solstice, or equinox and a willpower dot is expended upon the final door, it can be made permanent. This requires two blood, and two will power to cast, a blood and will power for each door. Category:Disciplines Category:Rules and Houserules Category:Thaumaturgy